saucy pork lettuce wraps with coconut rice

from the archives

I just received a message from someone telling me that they’ve made this recipe twice this week alone. It’s a beloved one from the original WTC subscribers who have been here since January 2021, and it made me think I should start re-sharing old recipes from the archives more often! You new subscribers need to know about the glory that is 30-minute pork lettuce wraps with coconut rice!

This is a really easy, fun, interactive meal. It’s a 30 minute version of bo ssam, my all-time favorite dinner party meal, which takes 24+ hours to cook. Throw everything on the table and let everyone go for it, making bowls or wraps, adding toppings and sauces as they go. It’s great for a simple weeknight dinner with the family or a casual dinner party with friends.

Click here for the printer version.

30-minute pork lettuce wraps with coconut rice and sauces

Serves 4

Time: 30 to 45 minutes active

Tools (my recommendations below):

• Plastic cutting board

• Chef’s knife

• Small pot for rice

• Two small bowls

• Large platter or board for serving

• Large nonstick skillet

Pork: 

• 1 to 1 1/2 pound pork tenderloin

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil (see notes for examples)

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

• Juice of 1/2 lime (about 1 tablespoon)

Coconut Rice:

• 1 1/2 cups Jasmine rice (or any white rice)

• 1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk or coconut cream

• 1 cup water

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

• Pinch of salt

Ginger-Scallion Sauce:

• 4 scallions (green onions)

• 1/4 cup pickled ginger (like what comes with sushi) or 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated (see notes)

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil

• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (or any light-colored vinegar)

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

Sriracha Mayo:

• 1/3 cup mayo

• Juice of 1/2 lime (about 1 tablespoon)

• 1 to 2 tablespoons sriracha

• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

For Serving:

• 1 large head green leaf or bibb/butter/boston lettuce

• Dumpster dive (Go hunt through your fridge and pantry and find things like this! You don’t need to buy them, but if you have them, use them!): chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, chopped cilantro, mint, or basil, pickled red onions, diced cucumber, diced bell pepper, thinly sliced jalapeño, pickled jalapeño….

Cut 1 pound pork tenderloin up into 1/2-inch cubes. That’s about the size of your thumbnail. To do this: cut the tenderloin in half lengthwise, then cut each of those halves in half. So at this point, you have four long strips of tenderloin. Now cut each of those strips into 1/2-inch cubes. Right on the cutting board, season the pork with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Toss to coat, then set aside at room temperature while you work on the rice and sauces.

To make the rice: combine 1 1/2 cups white rice (no, you don’t need to rinse it), 1 can coconut milk, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and a pinch of salt in a small pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to the lowest heat possible on your stovetop and cover for 15 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and leave covered to allow the rice to steam until you’re ready to eat (at least 5 minutes but up to 1 hour). 

Now go find a big pretty board or platter. Whatever you use to make cheese boards — that will work. Or even a plain ole wooden cutting board. We are going to throw everything except for the pork on a big board, put it in the center of the table, and let everybody dig in and make their own wraps or rice bowls. 

To make the ginger scallion sauce: thinly slice the white and light green part of 4 scallions. Like, as thin as possible. Paper thin! Now slice the dark green part of the scallions on the bias (check out the photo), also super thin. Add the light green and white parts to a bowl. The dark green parts are for garnish — set them on the platter. Dice 1/4 cup pickled ginger. Add it to the bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons neutral oil, 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, and 1 teaspoon soy sauce until well combined, then set the bowl on the platter. Place a little handful of pickled ginger on the platter before you put it away too. 

Now’s a good time to start heating up your skillet. By the time you finish making the sriracha mayo, it’ll be hot enough to cook on. It needs to preheat for at least 4 minutes!

To make the sriracha mayo: stir together 1/3 cup mayo, the juice of 1/2 a lime, 1 tablespoon sriracha, and 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce. Taste. Can you go spicier? Do it! Too spicy? Add more mayo! Set the sriracha mayo and the sriracha bottle on the platter.

Pull the lettuce leaves apart carefully to create your lettuce cups. I like to trim the root off, pull the leaves off, trim more root off, pull the leaves off, and so on. Place on the platter. Place the platter and the rice on the dinner table — it’s almost show time!

Now your skillet should be nice and hot. Are you seeing little wisps of smoke come off the sides? Good, we’re ready to cook! Pat the pork completely dry using a paper towel.

Add 2 tablespoons of neutral oil to the skillet (which, yes, is still on HIGH heat!) and swirl to coat the pan. Add the pork in an even layer and allow it to brown completely through, until only the very top of each piece of pork is still pink, 4 to 6 minutes.

A lot of liquid will likely accumulate in the skillet: that’s normal!

Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir in 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, and the juice of 1/2 a lime (about 1 tablespoon). Continue stirring for about 2 to 3 minutes, or until the pork is cooked through and is coated in the pan juices. As you stir, smash the pork with your spatula so that it somewhat shreds up (see image below). You should literally be able to watch and see when all of the pink goes away. When it does, remove the skillet from the heat. Hear me?!

If there’s still a lot of liquid in the pan, but you can tell the pork is cooked, remove it from the heat anyway — don’t keep cooking. We don’t want to overcook the meat here! Transfer the pork to a serving bowl, or do as I do and place the skillet directly on the dinner table.

Dig in! I like to build my wraps with a base of rice, then pile the pork, sauces and toppings on top.

Notes:

• Vegetarian: you’re gonna make scrambled tofu using all of these ingredients! Skip the marinating step, but add the salt and sugar in while scrambling. Use a firm block of tofu and do it over high heat just like the pork!

• Gluten-free: be sure to use a gluten-free soy sauce as tamari or coconut aminos.

• Dairy-free: omit the butter, or use a DF one.

• What to do when you really don’t feel like cooking: buy a pre-marinated teriyaki or otherwise Asian-flavored pork tenderloin or chicken thighs, have the butcher cube it up, and just saute it in oil and add the butter at the end. Buy premade sriracha mayo. Throw the full scallions and ginger slices in the blender and pulse until still chunky but chopped up. Buy frozen cooked rice.

• Double it: to double the meat — use two skillets so that you don’t overcrowd it and make it steamy instead of browned. To double the rice — 3 cups rice, 2 cans coconut milk, but only 1 cup water.

• Whole30: ditch the rice completely. If you want to make coconut cauliflower rice, do it. Omit the butter.

• Make ahead: marinate the meat and make your serving board with the sauces and toppings and lettuce leaves entirely ahead of time. Just throw that whole board right in the fridge. Cook the rice ahead of time too, refrigerate it right in the pot, add a splash of water and reheat by steaming it over low heat. Cook the pork right when it’s go time.

• Leftovers are a good thing: saute several cups of vegetables such as mushrooms and bell peppers in a bit of oil over high heat until tender. Stir in the rice, leftover pork, and ginger-scallion sauce. Drizzle sriracha-mayo over top.

• Feeding kids: wraps and taco-y things don’t quite work out for my two-year-old, so to feed this meal to him I made “rice pancakes” by combining about 1 cup of rice with 1 large egg and a couple tablespoons of flour to bind it all together into a pancake-y consistency. Cook like pancakes! He loved the pork, rice pancakes, and sriracha mayo.

Substitutions:

• Pork tenderloin: NOT pork loin. I repeat, no pork loin. Pork loin has even LESS fat, and will be dry and icky. Trust me, I tried it. Chicken thighs are a great swap. Chicken breasts are an ok swap. Ground pork or ground turkey will work too, but be sure to cook all of the liquid out.

• Brown sugar: white sugar or omit.

• Butter: plant-based butter or omit.

• Soy sauce: coconut aminos, tamari, etc.

• White rice: any type of white rice will do. Brown rice will not — it has a totally different cook time and liquid ratio. I didn’t test it but I THINK if you add another 1/2 cup of water and cook for 25 minutes it will work. But don’t hold me to it! You can also skip the rice and just make straight up lettuce leaves.

• Coconut milk: coconut cream works. Or feel free to omit and just make plain white rice. If so, use a 1:1 ratio of water to rice or use my favorite method where you boil it like pasta in a big pot of water.

• Scallion (green onion): shallots.

• Pickled ginger: be sure to ask if you can’t find it as most stores do carry this. Cheapo hack: go to the sushi section and ask for extra ginger — they’ll give it to you for free. Or grab a jar of minced ginger or fresh ginger and use 1 1/2 tablespoons of either.

• Neutral oil: to recap — neutral oils are vegetable, canola, grapeseed, avocado. Extra-virgin olive oil is not a neutral oil.

• Rice wine vinegar: any light-colored vinegar or lime juice.

• Mayo: sour cream, Greek yogurt.

• Sriracha: any hot sauce or chili sauce like sambal oelek.

• Lime juice: rice wine vinegar or any light colored vinegar.